Episode 20 | Patient Story | Guest: Jono
Jono had always been active. Gym-goer, football player, someone for whom exercise was simply part of life. When the pandemic hit in 2020, he was four weeks into his personal training course – not yet qualified, but energised and on a clear path forward. What followed was not what he had planned.
The diagnosis
Within weeks of lockdown beginning, Jono started experiencing symptoms he couldn’t account for. Weight dropped rapidly – around two stone over two months, taking him from 85kg down to the mid-60s. Tests followed. Months passed. It took the best part of a year to arrive at a diagnosis: Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory condition affecting the digestive tract.
The period before diagnosis was, by his own description, one of the hardest of his life. Operations, extended time in bed, and a body that felt nothing like his own – all set against the backdrop of lockdown, with its particular brand of isolation and uncertainty. “I wasn’t feeling 100% at all,” he says. “Not even 60%, to be honest.”
His brother had been diagnosed with Crohn’s a few years earlier, which offered a small measure of familiarity – but as Jono notes, symptoms vary significantly from person to person. Knowing what the condition was didn’t mean knowing what it would mean for him.
Finding a reason to get back up
About two months after starting medication, Jono returned to the gym. Not to train hard – just to be there. To do a session, however modest, and feel something like normal again. “That was, for me, going to the gym because I’ve always done it,” he says. “It was wanting to go back to some sort of normality.”
He was still fatigued. Still not fully himself. But he had his personal training course to finish – the one that had been interrupted before it had barely begun – and that gave him something to work towards. He used the online learning period during lockdown to study, and as soon as he was able, he put the theory into practice on himself. He wrote a programme, followed it, and rebuilt gradually.
The physical recovery has been slower than the mental one. Jono was told to expect roughly two days of recovery for every day he had been ill – meaning a full return to his previous fitness level could take years. He is still more prone to fatigue than before. Some sports, including football, have had to be set aside entirely. But he qualified as a personal trainer, and now works with clients of his own.
How Crohn’s changed his perspective
What strikes Jono most, looking back, is how much his outlook has shifted. Before he was ill, he describes himself as hard to please – focused on what he didn’t have, taking health and routine for granted. That changed.
“Just being able to go to the gym – having that taken away from me for a while – made me realise how important the little things are,” he says. “I realised I took that for granted before.” The things he now values most are simple: his health, his family, his friends, his ability to move and work and exercise. Material things matter far less.
He carries that perspective into his work as a personal trainer too. Having been on the other side – genuinely unfit, rebuilding from almost nothing, navigating fatigue and set-backs – he approaches clients with a level of understanding he doesn’t think he would have had before. “I’m a bit more understanding of if they are struggling with their shape, or just being able to put a lot into the workout. I get that a bit more now.”
Living with a chronic condition day to day
Crohn’s disease doesn’t go away. It is managed, not cured. For Jono, that means regular medication delivered by IV infusion every two months – and a pattern of symptoms that tends to worsen in the week or so before each dose. Those predictable dips are manageable; the unexpected flare-ups are harder.
He has learned – the hard way, more than once – not to rush back. “If I don’t let my body recover properly, I just end up making it worse,” he says. Rest is not failure; it is part of the process.
There are social dimensions too. Anxiety about being far from home, uncertainty about access to facilities, the quiet mental load of managing a condition that others can’t see. Diet has had to change significantly – lower fibre, lower fat, a more restricted range than the fruit-and-vegetable-heavy eating he might have assumed was healthy. It is, as he puts it, the opposite of what most people would expect.
Jono’s advice for anyone in a similar position
Asked what he would say to someone with Crohn’s – or any chronic condition – who wants to get back into exercise but doesn’t know where to start, Jono is clear:
- Take your time. The gym will be there. Your body needs to rest before it can rebuild. Pushing too hard too soon will set you back.
- Start small and just show up. Even if it’s two or three exercises and a chat with the staff. Getting back into the environment matters more than what you do once you’re there.
- Take it one day at a time. Don’t measure yourself against where you were before. Measure yourself against yesterday.
- Appreciate what you have. “If you’ve got your health, if you’ve got a good family around you, good friends – just appreciate it. That’s what I’d say.”
Crohn’s disease affects around 115,000 people in the UK. If you are managing a chronic condition and want support in safely returning to exercise or sport, the team at London Bridge Sports Medicine can help.
Get in touch at lbsm.co.uk/booking
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